On this day: Premiere of film Flesh and the Devil

EVENTS, birthdays and anniversaries on January 9.

This day in 1927 saw the premiere of the shocking silent film Flesh and the Devil. Picture: MGM

9 January

1492: The Diocese of Glasgow was elevated to an Archdiocese by Pope Innocent VIII.

1806: Lord Nelson was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.

1811: The first women’s golf tournament took place in Scotland, at Musselburgh.

1816: Sir Humphry Davy’s safety lamp was first used in a coal mine.

1902: New law in New York State banned flirting in public.

1927: Greta Garbo and John Gilbert shocked cinema-goers in New York by their lack of inhibition in the silent film Flesh and the Devil.

1939: Berlin’s Reichstag building, destroyed by fire in 1933, was opened by Hitler after rebuilding.

1945: American forces invaded Luzon in Philippines.

1957: Anthony Eden, in poor health, resigned as prime minister following the Suez fiasco. Harold Macmillan took over.

1959: Fishery cruiser Freya capsized near Wick, with the loss of three crew members.

1962: First de Havilland Trident made its maiden flight.

1968: United States Surveyor 7 spacecraft made soft landing on Moon.

1969: The first trial flight of Concorde, supersonic airliner, took place at Bristol.

1972: The Clyde-built Queen Elizabeth liner sank in Hong Kong harbour.

1972: The miners’ strike for improved pay and conditions began, their first national stoppage since 1926.

1989: MPs and war veterans protested at the announcement that the Duke of Edinburgh would attend the funeral of Emperor Hirohito of Japan in Tokyo.

1992: Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina proclaimed their own state, raising fears of bloodshed in the multi-ethnic republic.

1996: A band of Chechen gunmen seized 3,000 civilians and held them hostage in the Russian town of Kizlyar.

1997: British round-the-world solo yachtsman Tony Bullimore was rescued in the Southern Ocean after being trapped in the overturned hull of his yacht for four days.

2005: Elections were held to replace Yasser Arafat as head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. He was succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.

2011: Parcels containing bullets were sent to Celtic manager Neil Lennon.

BIRTHDAYS

Paolo Nutini, Scottish singer/songwriter, 28; Joan Baez, folk singer, 74; Ken Brown, Scottish golfer and television presenter, 58; Crystal Gayle, singer, 64; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (Kate Middleton), wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, 33; Jimmy Page OBE, rock guitarist and songwriter, 71; Joely Richardson, actress, 50; Sir Muir Russell, former principal and vice-chancellor of Glasgow University, 66; Freddie Starr, comedian, 72; Imelda Staunton OBE, actress, 59; Scott Walker, lead singer of the Walker Brothers, 72; Sarah Beeny, property developer and TV presenter, 43; Wilbur Smith, novelist, 82; Brian Friel, Irish dramatist, 86.

ANNIVERSARIES

Births: 1898 Dame Gracie Fields, singer, comedienne and music hall performer; 1913 Richard Nixon, 37th US president and first to resign; 1920 Clive Dunn OBE, comic actor; 1925 Lee Van Cleef, actor in westerns.

Deaths: 1995 Peter Cook, satirist; 2000 Nigel Tranter, Scottish historian and author; 2002 Edith Bouvier Beale, fashion model and cabaret artist; 2008 Sir John Harvey-Jones, chairman of ICI 1982 to 1987 and TV presenter;